Our world has become obsessed with non-stop work. We pride ourselves in so many ways on being busy and having multiple different side hustles and projects. Most students here at Hope probably feel the tug to adapt to this cultural norm of workaholism. But do we feel satisfied with all this work at the end of the day? How often do we fall into bed, exhausted after a long day of work, and wake up still feeling unrested? We weren’t created for this culture of endless work, and we only need to look to sacred Scripture to realize this:
Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the Israelites shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign forever between me and the Israelites that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.
Ex. 31:15-17
We were made for rest, and rest is important to God. Based on this passage, we know this isn’t something to be taken lightly. Although we are no longer under the same Jewish law God’s chosen people once were, we know rest is close to God’s heart.
Why do we seek work so much? Two reasons come to mind. For one, I think it’s because we want control, whether consciously or unconsciously. I also believe we don’t know how to be alone with ourselves anymore. How often do we say we will rest when our to-do list is done? Or when we reach a specific milestone in life? We say these things to ourselves, but we either never reach that point, or we aren’t satisfied when we reach it, so we search for more work, rather than giving ourselves permission to rest. There is something unsettling about not having anything to do and just being in interior silence. And yet, God meets us there in the silence, in “the still small voice.”2 Entering into silence and rest can be intimidating because in silence, we no longer have control. We don’t know what will come up in our hearts, and that scares us. When we busy ourselves, we claim control over our minds and keep it from that silence. But in that worry and fear of what we will find in the silence and rest, we show we do not trust God. We do not trust that he has good things in store for us. We avoid giving him control because we think we can manage our lives better than he can. Can we trust that what he has in store for us in the silence is good?
Maybe it isn’t always the interior silence we avoid with work; maybe we are becoming slaves to the idea that some project or event depends all on us. We think we can’t stop working because then plans won’t keep moving forward, and if they don’t move forward, our imperfection will affect others. What another great example of how we don’t trust God! Doesn’t he always come through when it is his will for something to happen? A friend steps up to help take care of an errand, or a commitment on the calendar gets canceled, freeing up time. If God wants something to happen, he will provide the means! And what if he doesn’t? Can we trust then it wasn’t meant to be in the first place?
Pope John XXIII is known for having said, “It’s your Church, Lord. I’m going to bed.”3 What a beautiful sign of surrender and trust! I can only imagine the many responsibilities a pope has and how overwhelming that must feel. Pope John XXIII is a beautiful example of understanding that we are not in control. We are not supposed to fix and run it all; that’s neither our job nor our responsibility. We do our best and hand the rest to God. A tangible way of doing this is going to bed! How often are we tempted to stay up until all our work is done? Let us trust instead that if it’s supposed to get done, God will give us the time to get it done tomorrow. What would our lives as students look like if we didn’t do any homework on Sundays? In what way would our lives shift if we chose to stop work at a certain point each day and rest? How would we have to shift our lives to make that day free of work? This idea is challenging to us because our world is not set to run this way. But St. Paul tells us to “not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.”4 Let’s renew our minds! Let us choose to surrender, trust, and rest, and see how God transforms us.
Grace Brown ’23
Grace is majoring in Public Accounting. She is from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
2 1 Kgs. 19:12, RSVCE
3 Pope John XXIII, quoted in David Birmingham, “The Bishop’s Comment: ‘It’s your church Lord. I’m going to bed’ Pope John 23rd,” The Church of England Birmingham, February 1, 2022, https://www.cofebirmingham.com/news-stories/the-bishops-comment-quotits-your-church-lord-im-going-to-bedquot-pope-john-23rd.php
4 Rom. 12:2